Critters

I had my GARDE MANGER class this evening, so I went directly to Cincinnati State from work.

We worked on a few items tonight since the food order was yet again messed up. As a result, we didn’t have the ingredients we needed for the items assigned tonight. This is a frustrating occurance that has happened far too many times this term. So, we made what we could — Pate Choux Paste, herbed cracker dough (we’ll pipe this out and bake it for decorations on our final platters), and a few other things, but nowhere near the production we hoped for.

During class, Chef brought out some Irish Breakfast Sausage and one of the students whipped up some Cranberry Mustard. The two together were a very satisfying dinner.

At home, Wendy was in the computer room and Buster was laying at her feet. When Dolly & Bean (the other two dogs) went crazy when I got home. Buster followed them halfway down the upstairs hallway before Wendy could catch him! Pretty good for a ‘paralyzed’ dog, don’t you think? He’s really starting to get his proprioception back — he’s placing his front feet somewhat deliberately, but he gets it ‘right’ almost half the time now. Pretty good for a dog who was immobile only two weeks ago! We’re hopeful that he’ll continue to improve.

In other news, he’s completely off all his medications now — the steroids, the muscle relaxers, the metronidozol, the Vitamin E, and the Selenium. He’s been dry in his playpen for the last couple mornings and his stools are starting to firm up.

This evening, Wendy & I went to Joann Fabrics to pick out fleece for our upcoming participation in a Project Linus event that Holly organized and Tracy is hosting.

Project Linus is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization with a two-fold mission:

First, it is our mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”

Second, it is our mission to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.

I picked out a nice HELLO KITTY fleece and Wendy selected a fish-themed fleece. Those in hand, we stopped by Frisch’s for a fish sandwich, onion rings, and cottage cheese for me and a tuna melt and fries for Wendy.

Once dinner was done, we took Buster upstairs to the computer room where he crawled around a bit while we computed, but mostly he was happy to lay in his cuddle cup. We’ve discovered that he absolutely loves his cuddle cup — he lunged (unsuccessfully) for it when I put it on the floor for him before I could put him in. He doesn’t have the control of his front end to jump up the 2 inches it takes to get into the cup. When I placed him in there, he was thrilled and nestled right in. The only thing Buster seems to like more than his cuddle cup is when Wendy or I lay on the floor. He’ll flop out of his cuddle cup and crawl the length of the house to lay against whomever is on the floor. It very sweet — he’ll go through the considerable effort of slowly crawling over just to be next to us. He’s starting to get better control of his front paws now.

He’s still down more than he’s up, but we’re seeing progress nearly every day. As an example, this morning was the first morning he’s been dry & clean in his playpen. We think this is because he’s now off all his medications (the steroids made him thirsty, and that water has to go somewhere!). We’re hoping that being off the meds will also calm his bowels a bit, which have been mostly loose.

There are several new pictures in Buster’s gallery, here.

This article was written by Wendy. 

At this time Buster is making great strides, literally. As last week drew to a close he started to push himself around the floor more enthusiastically. As anticipated, his rear end is stronger than the front (which we expected due to the location of the injury, which is right where the nerves controlling the front legs attach to the spinal cord). By Saturday he was righting his rear end by himself and shoving forward on his down front end in sort of a ‘commando crawl’. He has progressed to being able to support his weight on all 4 feet and taking a few halting steps before the front end gives out and he tumbles over.

He has plenty of strength in all 4 legs, but the problem remains in the proprioception, which is knowing where one’s body parts are without looking at them. This is always the first thing to go and the last thing to return in this sort of injury due to the way the associated nerve tracts are positioned in the spinal cord, so we are encouraged that it is beginning to come back to him at all. In humans, we lose proprioception not only when we have traumatic injuries like Buster’s, but also when we drink too much; hence the “drunk test” of touching your nose with your eyes closed. It’s why we stumble around after too many beers… we just don’t know where our feet are without seeing them anymore. So at this point it is honest to say that Buster’s movement is like a VERY drunk person’s… he is strong but terribly uncoordinated.

Buster rolls over the tops of his feet and can’t bother to place them correctly on the floor (pad side down), so he tumbles over. Fortunately, he’s rather low to the ground to begin with, so a tumble is not a major trauma. After a few good steps (usually to escape his own waste or to get to food) he falls over and gives up and lays there until someone comes to fetch him.

He is eating well but still has some loose stools, which I attribute to the high doses of Vitamin E he has been taking to help his nervous function. We have stopped this tonight as he is progressing so well and we are hopeful his bowels will firm back up soon. Overall his spirits seem to be pretty good. You can tell he gets frustrated when he wants to do something he can’t, but mostly what he seems to want to do is eat and sit next to us on the couch, and those things are currently within his reach.

In the morning/early afternoon, Jay & Angel and I went up to Xenia to read the script (”Gratuitous”) written by Dan, a filmmaker friend of mine. Dan likes to workshop his scripts to see what works and what could be tightened. This is the second time I have read “Gratuitous” for him, and this latest draft is working pretty well. It’s my pleasure to read for him, and Angel & Jay seemed to have a good time too.

Jay & Angel got to meet Buster when we got back to the house. Buster was having a pretty good day physically (though he’s got diarrhea from one of his meds) — he’s “commando crawling” all over the place and can flop himself out of his cuddle cup (the plastic box with the doggie bed in it where he sits when we’re around (when we’re not around, Buster stays in a playpen)).

Wendy & I found ourselves with an unexpected free Saturday evening, so we took a couple hours to go to Daveed’s restaurant in Mt. Adams for a very nice dinner. Daveed’s opened in September of 1999. It is a small restaurant (seating about 60) with an even smaller kitchen — everyone in the galley kitchen stands shoulder-to-shoulder. There’s no room for a fat guy back there! The restaurant’s decor is funky but understated, evoking a warm comfortable feeling in the dining room. I know most of the kitchen staff (David, Megan, Matt, Ms. Brown, and Nathan) from classes and having worked with them elsewhere. Our server, Todd, took very good care of us; he was very knowledgable and personable. The menu we ate was:

Amuse: Smoked Salmon Salad with Egg Mimosa and Truffle Foam. This was a very pretty and flavorful way to begin the meal. The salmon was nicely smoked and the truffle foam lent an amazing flavor to the couple-two-three bites of this amuse.

Enticements: Foie Gras on Brioche with Pears and Red Wine Gastrique; Wild Mushroom Soup with Flan and Truffle Oil; Lobster & Crab Salad with Citrus; and a Tuna Tartar with Kimchee sent out by the kitchen. The foie gras and the mushroom soup were superior dishes. A thick slab of foie gras set atop the toasted brioche (to soak up the juices) and a scattering of pears went around. I’m not embarassed to report that we used the excellent breads in the bread service to sop up the sauce at the bottom of the dish when everything else was consumed! Wendy’s Mushroom Soup was thick, hearty, and rich. The truffle oil garnish was almost too delicious. The Tuna Tartar was good, though the flavor of the tuna was overpowered by the kimchee. Still, it was a bold and not altogether-unsuccessful dish. One of the interesting components of the Tuna dish was little frozen dots of pureed avocado that contributed a cooling temperature and smooth texture.

Main dishes: Kobe Beef Tri-Tip with Warm Potato Salad; Duck Breast with wild mushrooms, Vermont white cheddar & garganelli pasta. Both of these dishes were excellent. Well-prepared with good attention to detail in the presentation. My tri-tip was nearly tender enough to cut with a fork, and cooked to a perfect just-barely-past-rare. I am not usually a fan of potato salad, but the Warm Potato Salad alongside the dish was very good. Wendy’s duck breast, in addition to being a large portion, was exceptional both in preparation and presentation. The white cheddar that topped the dish looked like it had been frozen, shaved, and sprinkled. It slowly melted during consumption of the dish. The garganelli was delicious.

Desserts: Deconstructed Banana Split; White & Dark Chocolate Mousse with fresh berries. My mousse was fairly standard but tasty. A generous dollop of both white & dark chocolate mousse was alongside some fresh berries. The Muscat that Todd served with it was perfect. Wendy’s banana split was interesting — a paper boat of fried banana, a quenelle of vanilla cream on top of a raspberry puree, a little pot of bittersweet chocolate sauce, and a small glass with lemon curd and more vanilla cream — all in seperate quadrants of the plate. Wendy had fun combining the elements in different ways to personalize the tastes.

It was a very good meal. Thanks to David and the gang in the kitchen!

On the way home, we stopped by our new Wal-Mart to get some supplies for Buster — another (smaller) playpen in which he can sleep upstairs with us, and some more pee pads to line them. We bumped into Gean, who certified us as scuba divers, and his family while we were there. It sure was nice to see Gene and meet his wife and family!

Wendy got home with Buster this evening (expect an update from Wendy soon) and wanted to go get him a harness to help hold his front end up while he’s outside to potty. She got the idea when she was outside with him at her office this afternoon, and Buster lunged on his back legs to try and greet a puppy that came out.

His rear legs are strong and he’s willing to use them. His front legs are not as strong, and he can control them only a little. We found the smallest harness at our local PetSmart (a medium, which is still a bit too big for him, though it proves the concept) and will get him a small online.

Dinner was Beef Ramen (Wendy had Chicken Tom Yum Mi) from Lulu’s Noodle Bowl and we settled in to watch the season finale of HOUSE.

After running a few errands, Wendy & I hung out with Buster and the other pets this evening while we watched AMERICAN IDOL and voted, voted, voted for Taylor Hicks! While we were out, I picked up some Stouffer’s French Bread Pizzas and prepared one of them for my dinner.

We did a little bit of physical therapy with Buster, trying to help him keep his strength. He’s gotten pretty good at rolling himself from his side to laying on his belly, and has good strength in his rear legs. Wendy said that if we had a harness for him, he could probably push himself around the house.